With the onset of the country’s construction boom, the Philippines is set to witness a surge in demand for construction-related jobs in the next five years, the country’s Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has predicted.
DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) estimates the construction industry will need an additional 120,000 workers starting this year up to 2022 to address its labor shortage, reported Manila Bulletin.
“The construction industry is currently in need of 200,000 workers, but there is currently only 80,000 supply in the labor market,” BLE director Dominique Tutay reportedly said.
She reportedly said laborers, electricians, heavy equipment drivers and safety engineers are among the most highly sought after skills by construction firms.
DOLE was quoted as saying that it will soon conduct a nationwide audit of the construction sector to ensure the labor and safety rights of workers in preparation for the entry of thousands of new workers in the construction field.
Tutay added that local education and training institutions were already advised to increase their students and trainees in construction-related fields to address the labor shortage. “We are encouraging them to just continue training those who are looking for jobs… They (workers in construction-related field) should have a certain set of skills, which the industry is looking for.”
In a previous press conference, labor undersecretary Dominador Say stated they are also mulling on tapping overseas Filipino workers to ease the tight demand for construction workers.
Agreeing with the labor undersecretary, Tutay reportedly said a local construction firm considered absorbing some of the 11,000 Filipino construction workers reportedly displaced in Saudi Arabia in 2016.
The Philippine office of U.S.-based property consultancy firm Colliers International earlier reported several construction projects from the private sector last year were delayed for lacking the necessary manpower.
Colliers said the shortage may worsen this year as the government’s infrastructure projects kick off, Manila Bulletin reported .
